All Is Fair in Coasters and Dunking Pools
by Insanity 101
Summary: Robin and Raven make a wicked deal at the carnival, and trust me, nothing expected will come of it. RobXRae.
1. Chapter 1

_I knew it would happen eventually...my need for one-shots has returned once again. Just a bit of nonsense, some light reading for those of you that have been cursed with my intense stories for so long. Hopefully, enjoy.

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"No."

"Oh come on. Why?"

"Because I said no."

"Are you scared?"

"Robin, do you value your life?"

The Boy Wonder paused in mock concentration. "Um...no. Now why won't you come with me?"

"Because!" Raven's eyes flashed dangerously, but frustration was not the primary emotion she was currently being plagued with.

Robin quieted at the tone in her voice, wondering if he had pushed too far. But, being the stubborn individual he always was, he continued to push anyway. Robin was one of those kids that would keep putting their hand on the burner until there was no hand left unless someone stopped them. "This one isn't that bad, I swear. It's fun! Come on, you'll like it, I promise!"

Raven's eyebrow quirked doubtfully as she stared up at the rickety contraption, the screams of poor tortured souls ringing in her ears. "Fun?"

Robin rolled his eyes. "Yes, fun. You know, rides, cotton candy...carnival? This place is all about fun."

"I don't _do_ fun."

"Oh come on!" Robin yelled, tugging her hand in exasperation. "If we don't get in line we'll be waiting here all night!"

"Well then I hope you brought your sleeping bag, because nothing you could say would make me get on that deathtrap."

Robin looked almost ready to give up for a moment, or perhaps he was considering resorting to desperate pleas...but then the lightbulb went on with a pleasant _ding_. "If you ride this with me...then I'll let you dunk me."

Raven's eyebrows went up in surprise as she contemplated this idea. "And how do I know you'll keep your word?"

Robin's face grew solemn, his back rigid, one arm jerked forward in salute. "You have my word as an honorary crime-fighter." When this failed to impress her, he tried again. "...And you can give me a wedgie if I fail to comply."

Raven's nose wrinkled at the thought. "No thanks...but I'm sure I can think of some other method of torture..."

Concerned by the wicked light in her amethyst eyes, Robin gulped uncomfortably. "Well I'm afraid you'll have to save your creativity for Beast Boy, because I'll keep my end of the bargain...if you keep yours." Holding out his gloved hand solemnly, he said, "Deal?"

Raven stared down at it, carefully weighing the situation to see if a soaking wet and spluttering Robin would make up for five minutes spinning like a thing gone possessed. She decided it was...but she wasn't about to let him get off easy. Smirking evilly, Raven raised the stakes. "Double or nothing."

Robin's eyes widened. "Twice? For just one ride? No way."

Placing her hands on her hips with a supremely unconcerned look on her face, Raven droned, "Well then, I suggest you get comfortable. They say it's going to be cold tonight."

Robin scowled, doing something that was a teenage version of the toddler pout. Digging his steel-toed boot into the gravel and gazing longingly at the wildly twisting ride, he set his jaw stubbornly. "Lets make things fair. For every ride you go on with me, I'll let you dunk me. So, one ride, one dunk. Ok?"

"Throw in a live performance of Oops I Did It Again, and you've got yourself a deal." Raven struggled to keep her face straight, but it was revealed in the traitorous twitching of her lips. Seeing Robin's deathly white face, she reconsidered, however. As amusing as that would be, the others would ask awkward questions if she brought Robin back to the tower in a state of panic. "Just kidding. Deal."

Robin let out a sigh of relief, then glared at her in mild anger. Before he could say anything, she grabbed his hand and got in the ever-growing line. The _Ring of Fire_ loomed before them: a towering circle of track with something similar to a train zooming around and around its rickety frame. There was no way in the free world that she would let him see how much..._concern_ it inspired in her, especially since he was bouncing on the balls of his feet in eagerness. Her eyes grew wide in bewilderment as he practically itched with impatience. She had always known that Robin was not all there, but this...this was pure insanity.

He suddenly stopped his excited chatter, looking at her uncomfortably. "What? Did I spill mustard on my shirt or something?"

Raven jumped a little, looking away hastily. She hadn't realized she was just staring at him like that...when he continued to look worried, she relieved his doubts...kind of. "No. But you're funny looking enough without condiments, you know."

Laughing and shoving her lightly in a buddy-buddy manner, Robin returned his attention to the scientific miracle before them, Raven's staring completely forgotten. It was amazing how dorky and care-free he could be when the word "crime" wasn't involved...almost made her wish they could be normal more often.

The line crawled by as group after group climbed onto the rollercoaster with confidence and excitement, then climbed off in varying states of mental collapse. With each passing group, Raven became more and more quiet, while Robin was increasingly enthusiastic. The empath was extremely glad that she had turned Robin down on the offer of a chili dog...she could imagine what those would feel like coming back up.

"Finally!" yelled Robin as they were at last allowed to climb on. He stopped his forward dash only when he realized that Raven wasn't with him. Turning questioningly, he cocked an eyebrow. "You coming?"

With a steely glare that seemed to him unwarranted, Raven jerked her head and joined him in the coaster. The bars locked down with an alarming finality, saying quite plainly that there was no getting off now...she was completely trapped. Fighting the..._worry_ that gripped her chest painfully, Raven nodded stiffly in response to the question she hadn't even heard. And then...they were moving.

It was slow at first, rocking back and forth in a way that would have been soothing, if she hadn't known it was about to get infinitely worse. The grin plastered to Robin's masked face had her wondering if he had sniffed something before leaving the tower. How on earth could he possibly be enjoying this nightmare?

She soon realized why the Boy Wonder had insisted on riding in the very front car...you were the first to go. Her stomach leapt into her mouth, her fists clenched in vain around the bar as they zoomed up the track, Robin whooping beside her. For a moment, she thought for sure they were going full circle...but then it dropped back down with stomach-turning speed, zooming along the track backwards at a rate greatly increased from the last. Watching the world fly by in sickening swirls of strangely bright colors, Raven saw the ground before she felt the falling...that horrible sinking sensation in your stomach...and then they just stopped. _Upside down._

"This is great! Hey, check it out, there's the tower!" Robin pointed happily, rapping his knuckles on the ceiling of their compartment...which had now become the floor. When he got no response from Raven, he glanced in her direction, then fixed her with a worried stare. "Are you ok?"

The pressure of being upside down for this long was pushing her head to exploding point, the screams of her fellow victims ringing in her ears as her entire body buzzed with panic. She couldn't breathe, couldn't seem to force air into her lungs as her arms screamed from the effort of holding onto the bars. As they continued to sit there at the very top, she inevitably began to wonder if they were stuck...

"Raven!"

She forced her head around slowly, locking _eyes_ with him...and in that moment, it didn't seem strange. With a sort-of detached logic, she realized that his mask must have been ripped off by the speeding air currents. Knowing this didn't matter, though. The eyes gave her focus.

"Shh just breathe, ok? Breathe." His voice was calm and soothing, easing her franticly beating heart. "We'll be moving any minute, just calm down. Now listen, when we start down again, scream."

"W...why?" It was hard to force the words out of her locked jaw as a piercing shriek came from the car behind them and the track creaked ominously in the wind.

"Just do it. If you don't scream...well, just trust me, it's always better if you scream." He reached over with difficulty and squeezed her hand, a gentle smile in his deep brown eyes. "Ok?"

She jerked her head in consent, tensing as the coaster screeched into action again. "Robin?" she yelled over the wind and screams.

"What?"

"You Are One Dead Little Water Rat!"

His laughter was the last thing she heard before they dropped, the force wipping her hair wildly and stretching the skin on her cheeks. Shutting her eyes tightly, she took his advice, letting all the tension and fear out in a throat-tearing scream.

Scream. Gasp. Yell. Scream. Gasp. Scream again. Breathe. Shriek. Yell. Try not to break Robin's fingers. Scream once again.

After what seemed an eternity, the ride finally came to a hault, rocking back and forth a few times for good meassure before the attendant finally let them off the living nightmare. Raven had never been more grateful to feel solid earth beneath her feet.

"So...pretty fun, huh?"

Raven gave him a withering look, and Robin quickly shut his mouth, though his brown eyes sparkled with amusement. Apparently the Boy Wonder had yet to realize the absence of his mask, not that he could have found it if he had. He didn't know, and Raven sure wasn't telling. No need for him to have a panic attack and leave before she got the chance to submerge him in a large pool of ice cold water. "Ok, Boy Blunder, now it's your turn for misery. To the dunking pool!"

Robin sighed wearily, then darted a glance in her direction. "Now, when you say 'torture', what exactly do you mean?"

Raven rolled her eyes, grabbed him by the arm, and physically dragged him to the rudely named _Whale Wash. _The line was--surprise surprise--incredibly short, as in consisting of two people besides themselves. Robin started to perspire, gulping uncomfortably as he watched the Dunker hit the Dunkee with a missaimed thick rubber ball. At last the poor soul, by this time cursing and attempting to extricate himself from the dunking chair, was plunged into the ice-cold pool with a splash that soaked his uniform. Oh well, no point worrying about a drop or two when he was about to become personally aquainted with the germ-infested water from whence it came. Darn it, he should have considered that before agreeing to this evil little deal.

"Ready?" The wicked smile just kept getting wider as Raven stared at the stockinged and sour-faced Robin perched on the little metal seat. Right then and there, she made a personal resolve to ride on everything available, maybe going twice on some if necessary.

He merely scowled, folding his arms across his chest and swinging his legs. "Just get it over with all ready!" What had possessed him into agreeing to this?

Raven pretended not to see his distress as the rubber ball glowed black and flew in little circles around Robin's head, occasionally bouncing off his skull. This continued for about five minutes until Robin finally snapped. Just when he opened his mouth to scream a stream of explitives at her, she aimed the ball at the target and sent it flying with inhuman speed. It hit its mark (how could it not?) and Robin's brown eyes widened ever so slightly as the only thing between him and the radioactive waste beneath him vanished.

Not only was the water cold, filthy, and halfway down his throat, the pool was shallow, a bonk on the butt adding injury to insult. He came up gasping, spluttering, and uttering a stream of creative swears (Holy Cheese Wiz! Holy Heart Failure! etc). The sight of Raven engaged in a personal battle with a horde of persistant giggles did nothing to improve his mood. Grinning twitchily, she offered a hand to pull him out, saying with some level of sincerity, "Here, let me help you."

Robin smiled evilly on the inside (he saw straight through her little trick), but on the outside, his face was composed. "Thanks, Rae," he said, smiling and extending his hand.

A quick jerk was all it took. With a loud splash, Raven joined him in the _Whale Wash_, coming up soaking wet and spitting mad, Robin laughed and choked on the dirty water, his face bright red.

"You evil, retarded, bird-brained, dirty rotten--!"

Raven's eyes widened, looking straight into his deep brown orbs and feeling a blush creep into her face. It was over in what was perhaps a millisecond, just a quick pec on the lips, nothing too bold or sappy. All the same, it left her head reeling and her mind very much confused.

"See that? They're spontaneous! Why can't you be spontaneous?"

Robin and Raven jerked their heads around, showering the girl with little droplets of water. Former Dunker and Dunkee were standing a few feet away, a dreamy look in the Dunker's eyes. Instantly both titans turned a fiery red.

The Dunkee scowled and grumbled something to the affect of "my spontaneous muscles are broken" before shuffling away, the dreamy-eyed girl trailing along in his wake.

Slightly embarassed yet not regretting their little spell in the _Whale Wash_, they climbed out and shook off a bit, Raven squeezing out her hair while Robin desperately tried to salvage his. "You know...it actually looks somewhat decent, like this," commented Raven, a tiny part of the blush returning as she carefully avoided his eyes.

When Robin scoffed and shook his head skeptically, she shrugged, looking for another ride to earn her another dunking. "Hey let's go on that one, _The Zipper."_

Robin stopped dead in his tracks, a muscle twitching furiously at his temple as his face drained of all color. "The Z-zipper?"

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_MUHAHAHA! What's this? A ride that **Robin's** afraid of? Ok there it is...and don't even SAY one word about sappiness, cuz this was TOTALLY not! Robin: -snicker- Dusty: -growl- If this reminded you of the ep Betrayal, it was unintended, though I do like that episode. I got the inspiration from going to our county fair...so yeah. Review please!  
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	2. Chapter 2

_What's that you say? I said this was a one-shot? HA! And you actually listened to me? Let's take a look at past experience, shall we? I said there wouldn't be a sequel to Aftereffects. Woops, theres a sequel finished and a sequel to the sequel on its way! I said Redemption was a one-shot. It has four chapters. I said there wouldn't be a sequel to Shadow Creature, there is. All In The Game was supposed to have one chapter. It has eight. _

_Seeing a pattern here? I'm a pathological liar, what can I say? For those who asked what The Zipper is, I'll elaborate, for those who recognized it, yes it is horrid. Nearly lost my mind on the stupid thing. Someone asked where the other titans are...lets see...Star's in Tamaran for Galfor's day of creation, Beast Boy and Cyborg are engulfed in a week long video game battle. Satisfied?

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_

"Done?"

"Um..." Robin's words were abruptly cut off by another gut-renching wretch, a nasty splash or two making Raven cringe slightly, a mixture of sympathy and disgust showing on her face. A few minutes later, there was another break, in which the only sound was his heavy breathing.

"Ok, one more time...done?"

"I...I think so." Robin pushed himself unsteadily away from the sink, rinsing his mouth and splashing his face before smiling weakly at Raven.

"No 'I think so's. Be positive." She was coming across rather harsh, she realized, so she gave his shoulder a light squeeze to soften the blow. Robin tensed, and she released him instantly, wondering if she had squeezed hard enough to hurt him.

Shrugging it off with difficulty, she found there was still a dry comment down there somewhere. "So...you have a dislike for _The Zipper_?"

Robin scowled, going even more pale in the memory of his horror. "Yeah, you could say that," he practically snarled, poking his stomach as though wondering if it was going to turn inside out again. "I mean, come on! You're in a tiny basket thats spinning like a thing gone mad, and, by the way, the basket is attached to something that is spinning as well--and then, on top of it all, the whole thing is so rickety and rusty that its practically falling apart on the spot! You know how crushed you would be if you fell from that thing? You know what metal looks like when it's mixed with bits of--" His face turned dangerously green, then he leaned over the sink and puked once again, somehow managing to find some food to get rid of.

Raven patted his back sympathetically, wondering how _The Zipper_ could be considered any worse than that horrid _Ring of Fire_. And even if it was worse, she had never seen Robin react this way to anything nerve-wracking...she'd hardly even seen him scared before, that is, without the mention of Slade. She hadn't thrown up...why had he?

"I know what you're thinking," grunted Robin, resurfacing and rinsing his mouth once again. With a sigh and a nervous jerk of his hand through his un-spikey hair, he elaborated. "When I was, lets see...about six years old, I went on that _thing_ with..." he paused, a confusing emotion written in his brown eyes, "with my dad. Don't know how I managed to be tall enough...but anyway. I hated it...loathed it. And I do not exagerate when I say that I was throwing up for a week afterward." His face twisted in disgust at the memory, and he glanced at the sink warily as though ready to dive over it again. False alarm, thankfully. "Things like that just don't leave you..."

He sorta expected Raven to laugh at this little revelation, but she didn't. Instead, she shocked him right down to his steel-toed boots. "I'm sorry...I didn't know." Fixing him with her violet gaze, she asked, with the most sincerity he had ever heard from her, "Are you all right?"

At first, it was just a small twitch of the lips, reluctant and more or less against his will, then it grew into a small smirk, and before he knew it he was wearing a full-blown grin. "More than."

Brown eyes widened slightly as the words slipped from his mouth, and a light blush spread across his faintly green cheeks. The crowded bathroom had gotten very hot very fast, and Robin felt a strong desire to be out in the cool air of twilight once more. He awkwardly reached for her hand, then thought better of it, and did a sort of pirouette in mid-air, stumbling for the door and sweet freedom. Raven followed slowly.

The empath was rather surprised that he hadn't looked in the mirror even once while in the bathroom. True, he was rather busy with other things, but still...most people automatically looked when they were around a mirror. She rather hoped he would discover the absence of his mask, because she had a feeling that the longer it went, the larger the explosion of realization would be. Her guilt at last overcoming her personal prefferences, Raven said, very carefully and casually, "They're an interesting color of brown. A mix of dark and light, amber and sepia, swirled together yet at the same time seperated..." She coughed, attempting to stop herself from getting completely carried away and hoping he wasn't about to strangle her. "Unusual. Unique. I don't think I've ever seen eyes quite like yours." It was her turn to gape in shock at the blurted thought, but she didn't have long to question it.

Robin had stopped dead in his tracks, a twitch working furiously at his temple, hands trembling slightly. At first it was disbelief, then horror, and then realization as he reached tentatively toward his face and felt, not the customary cold of plastic, but the warmth of skin. Bare skin. _Maskless_ skin.

"What...how...when did I...Why didn't you...?"

Raven hastened to explain. "You lost it on the roller coaster. The wind just ripped it off. I knew you wouldn't be able to find it, and I didn't want you to feel uncomfortable, so I didn't mention it, but when you didn't notice-- Robin..." Her voice held the merest hint of desperation, of pleeding.

"You mean...this whole time I've been...?"

"No one noticed," she assured him. "No one gives anyone the time of day in a crowd like this. Besides...I don't recongnize you. I doubt they would." The words slipped from her mouth before she could stop them. "Please don't be upset. This has been so fun, and...and I don't want it to end on a bad note." She bit her lip, watching for his reaction.

Robin was struggling to comprehend, fighting to kick out a reaction, fighting over which reaction to kick out. It was perfectly natural for him to yell, wave his arms around, have a mental breakdown, and storm off leaving an either angry or hurt Raven in his wake, and later feel like crap because of it. Whoa...that didn't sound like much fun. To heck with natural reactions! He was spontaneous, after all. Why not avoid that emotional soap opera, just to shake things up a little. Besides, the look on Raven's face...well, it did things to him that he just couldn't quite work out. All he knew was that he wanted to make her happy.

"Hey...that's all right, Raven. It'll be dark soon anyway." Taking her hand on impulse, he smiled warmly at her, trying not to feel exposed without his mask. It was strange...but somehow, around Raven, it was more a good feeling than a bad one. "So...now I guess you get to dunk me again, huh?"

Raven blinked in complete shock, her gaze traveling from his open smile to his gloved hand wrapped around hers. She was tempted to poke him sharply on the arm, wondering if she had been hoodwinked into going out...to the fair with a hologram. She shook it off with difficulty, adding it to the list of the many other un-Robin-like things the Boy Wonder had done that day. "Hmm...I don't think so. The arrangement will be a little different this time."

Robin looked at her questioningly, but she didn't elaborate, merely tugged him along to the _Whale Wash_, which still had a shocking lack of costumers.

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"Oh for pity's sake Robin, just throw the ball!"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to! I...I have bad aim!"

Raven raised one thin eyebrow skeptically. "Right, which is why you could kill someone with a single birdarang from twenty feet away."

"Fifty," he corrected, then frowned as he realized his mistake. "I just don't want to, ok?" he growled, glaring icily at the attendant who was sniggering behind her hand.

"Why don't you want to?" Raven pressed, her butt rapidly becoming numb on the uncomfortable metal projection, the night wind playing with her hair.

"Because!"

"Because why? I made you ride _The Zipper_, so now you get to dunk me. You should be happy."

"Well, I'm not! Get off that contraption--"

"Or what?" she teased, smirking at his distressed expression. She wasn't entirely sure why he was making such a fuss, but it was amusing all the same.

"Or...I'll..." he faltered, casting a helpless glance at his shoes, "...get you down...myself?" The statement had somehow lost something in translation.

Raven chuckled, swinging her legs slightly. "You only wish you could, Robin." For some reason, this statement brought a crimson blush flaming into his cheeks. Raven's eyebrow cocked in suspicion. "What?"

"Idon'twanttodunkyoubecauseit'snotfunandthebottomkindofhurtsanditjustseemsrudeand...I...I just...can't." The rubber ball fell from his limp hand, bouncing slightly on the hard-packed dirt as he turned slowly and walked away from the _Whale Wash_, leaving silence in his wake.

Raven blinked several times, drooping slightly as confusion set in. "What on earth is wrong with him?" she mumbled, not expecting an answer.

"You don't know much about guys, do you?"

The empath turned to face the attendant, unpleasantly surprised at her unwanted input. "I beg your pardon?" she droned venemously.

"He's practically clobbering you with signals, yet you don't pick up on a single one. Don't you get it? The classic protective nature, the blushing...oh, and in case you didn't know, friends don't kiss on the lips. Cheek, forehead, sure...but not lips." The attendant helped her down off the seat with an exasperated sigh. "Unless of course you want to torture him...because you're certainly doing that."

Raven scowled. "And I'm supposed to listen to a brainless airhead who--"

"You're not supposed to do anything. Just giving a bit of advice, take it or leave it." Gesturing towards the bench where Robin was sitting, head in his hands, she droned, in a rather good imitation of Raven, "Now, if I wasn't a brainless airhead, I would tell you to go talk to him. But then, what do brainless airheads know, after all?" With a wink and a flick of her blonde hair, she turned away from Raven and went back to her romance novel: no doubt her source of information.

Resentful at the prospect of taking the girl's advice, yet grudgingly seeing some value in it, Raven made her way toward the bench, wondering what she should say. Mentally, she stopped herself. The best conversations were always the ones that weren't planned in advance.

"Robin?"

"What?" he grunted, voice muffled by his hands. He was in a state of shock, too humiliated to articulate properly. Had he gone completely insane? You just didn't say things like that...not to Raven...especially when they were true.

Sighing quietly, she sat down next to him, gazing absently at the brightly lit ferris wheel before them. The racket of the fair was the only sound for a moment, then...

"Thank you."

Robin still didn't emerge from his shell of protection. "For what?"

Taking his head and gently lifting it until their eyes met, Raven smiled one of her rare yet beautiful smiles. Her hand found its way to his, fingers entwining comfortably as she felt him relax under her gaze. They fit. Somehow...they just fit.

"For a new beginning."

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_Ok...so...maybe that part was a bit sappy, but...oh give me a break! Even unsappy people are sappy sometimes! This is the last chapter, THE LAST CHAPTER, DO YOU HEAR? Hope you liked it...it was a lot of fun to write. Review please! -Dusty_


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